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Discovering Diverse Content Through
Random Scribd Documents
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Useful
Knowledge: Volume 1. Minerals
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United
States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License
included with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you
are not located in the United States, you will have to check the
laws of the country where you are located before using this
eBook.

Title: Useful Knowledge: Volume 1. Minerals

Author: William Bingley

Release date: September 14, 2018 [eBook #57898]

Language: English

Credits: Produced by Chris Curnow, Barry Abrahamsen, and the

Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK USEFUL

KNOWLEDGE: VOLUME 1. MINERALS ***
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public
domain.
Useful Knowledge: 4th ed. Minerals. Vol 1 of 3

Frontispiece to Vol. I. see Page 237.

Comparative Height of Mountains, Cities and Lakes

British Islands Continent of Europe Islands not
British Asia America

(Click on image to see a larger version.)

J. Shury sculp.
 USEFUL KNOWLEDGE:
OR

A FAMILIAR ACCOUNT
OF THE

VARIOUS PRODUCTIONS
OF

Nature,
MINERAL, VEGETABLE, AND ANIMAL,
WHICH ARE CHIEFLY EMPLOYED FOR THE USE OF MAN.

Illustrated with numerous Figures, and intended as a Work both of

Instruction and Reference.

BY THE

Rev. WILLIAM BINGLEY, AM. FLS.

LATE OF PETERHOUSE, CAMBRIDGE, AND AUTHOR OF ANIMAL BIOGRAPHY.
 IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. I. MINERALS.

FOURTH EDITION.

LONDON: PRINTED FOR BALDWIN, CRADOCK, AND JOY;

HARVEY AND DARTON;
AND C. AND J. RIVINGTON.

1825.
 C. Baldwin, Printer,
New Bridge-street, London.
 PREFACE.

The mode in which instruction has hitherto been conveyed, on the

peculiar subjects of the present work, has chiefly been by small
books, in question and answer, denominated catechisms. But such,
however respectable in themselves, or however advantageous for
children, are wholly insufficient for persons who are in search of
extended knowledge, and desirous of furnishing their minds with
useful information.
On these subjects there has not hitherto been published any work
in which they are collectively to be found; nor could a knowledge of
them be obtained but by the consultation of many and expensive
writings. That they are generally important to be known will not
probably be denied.
It has consequently been the object of the author to compress all
the interesting information that could be obtained respecting them,
within as narrow a compass, and at the same time to render this
information as entertaining, and as devoid of technical words and
phrases, as possible.
The scheme of the work will, it is hoped, be found sufficiently
simple. The passage in smaller characters at the head of each
article, is in general so arranged as to reply to the questions, “What
is?” “What are?” or “How do you know?” For instance: “What is
flint?” (See Vol. I. p. 53.) The answer will be found thus: “Flint is a
peculiarly hard and compact kind of stone, generally of smoke-grey
colour, passing into greyish white, reddish, or brown. It is nearly
thrice as heavy as water, and, when broken, will split in every
direction, into pieces which have a smooth surface.” The author is
aware that, in many instances, the definitions are defective: but this
has, in general, arisen from a necessity of rendering them short, and
at the same time of using such terms as would be likely to convey
information to the minds of persons who have had no previous
knowledge of the systems of natural history.
After the definition, a further illustration sometimes follows; and in
the large characters will be found a brief detail of the history and
uses of the object described. The articles are numbered, for the
greater convenience both of reference and explanation, but
particularly the latter. Thus, under the explanation of Carbon, it is
stated that “in combination with oxygen (21) it forms carbonic acid
(26), and that it is the chief component part of pit-coal (217),
petroleum (213), and other bituminous substances.” By a reference
to the numbers inserted, each of the words, against which they
stand, will be explained: whilst at least three of them would
otherwise have been incomprehensible by the generality of
unscientific readers.
It must be remarked that the reader will not here find an account
of every production of nature, which is employed for the use of man,
nor even all the uses of such objects as are described. The most
important of the productions, and the principal of the uses, are all
that he trusts can reasonably be required in a work of the present
extent. On this ground it is that a great number of animals, which
are in request only for food, have been wholly omitted.
The figures that are inserted have been drawn upon as small and
economical a scale as was compatible with a sufficiently accurate
representation of the objects to which they relate. If the reader be
desirous of reference to further illustration, he will derive much
satisfaction from the invaluable figures of Mr. Sowerby in his British
and Exotic Mineralogy, and English Botany, and Woodville’s Medical
Botany; as well as from those in Dr. Shaw’s General Zoology, and
Bewick’s Histories of Quadrupeds and British Birds. There are also
many figures of useful animals in the author’s own work, entitled
“Memoirs of British Quadrupeds.”
 ADVERTISEMENT
TO THE

THIRD EDITION.

Since this work was first printed, the author has

made in it considerable improvements. The first
volume, particularly, contains many additional
articles, and more than half of it has been re-written.
The plates also have been re-engraved. For the plate
of the mountains a new drawing has been made,
that the scale might be extended, and many
particulars might be introduced which before were
omitted. For the plates of vegetables every drawing
has been corrected; and, in place of such figures as
were most defective, new ones have been inserted.
Charlotte-street, Bloomsbury,
London, 1st March, 1821.
EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES
OF THE

FIRST VOLUME.

FRONTISPIECE.

This is explained in pages 236, 237.

PLATE I.
Fig. MINERAL DEPOSITS.
1. Horizontal beds or strata.
a. Veins or dykes.
2. Bending strata.
3. Minerals in detached masses.
4. Disjoined strata.
b. A fault.

PLATE II.
 CRYSTALS, &c.
5. Octohedron.
6. Rough diamond.
7. Profile of a brilliant-cut stone.
8. Profile of a rose-cut stone.
9. Plane of a table-cut stone.
10. Plane and profile of the Pitt diamond.
11. Dodecahedron.
12. Rough garnet.
13. Six-sided pyramids, joined base to base.
14 Regular four-sided prism.
15. Six-sided prism.
16. Cube.
17. Four-sided pyramid having a rhomb for its
base.

PLATE III.
SECTION OF ROCKS.
I. Primitive Rocks.
Fig.
1. Granite.
2. Gneiss.
3. Mica-slate.
4. Clay-slate.
a. Lime-stone.
b. Quartz.
5. Primitive lime-stone.
 II. Secondary Rocks.
1. Transition Rocks.
6. Grey-wacka.
7. Transition lime-stone.

2. Floetz Rocks.
8. Old red sand-stone.
9. Alternating strata of lime-stone and sand-
stone.

III. Alluvial Deposits.

10. Alluvial strata of clay, gravel, &c., &c.

The BINDER is desired to insert all the Plates, except the

Frontispieces, immediately after the Explanations in the
respective Volumes.
 Pl. 1. Vol. I.
J. Shury. sculp.
Sections of Strata &c.
 Pl. 2. Vol. I.
CRYSTALS &c.

Pl. 3. Vol. I.
Section of Rocks. J Shury sculp.
USEFUL KNOWLEDGE.
MINERALS.
 INTRODUCTION.

1. Minerals are natural bodies destitute of organization and life:

and Mineralogy is that branch of natural science which treats of the
properties and relations of such bodies.

MINERAL DEPOSITS.

2. If we penetrate beneath the surface of the earth, we observe

there a very remarkable arrangement. Instead of a generally uniform
appearance, as we see on the surface, we pass through divers
substances, as clay, gravel, sand, and numerous others, deposited in
beds or strata of various thickness, from a few inches to a great
many feet (Pl. I. Fig. 1). These lie, for the most part, nearly
horizontal: but in some instances, particularly in mountainous
countries, they take different degrees of inclination; and, in places
where the country consists of gently sloping hills and vales, the beds
have a waving or bending form (Pl. 1, Fig. 3). The strata of which
the earth is composed, as deep as the curiosity or the necessities of
mankind have induced them to explore, satisfactorily demonstrate
the wisdom which has been displayed in the arrangement of
materials requisite for the use of men and animals.
The first layer is frequently a rich, black mould, formed almost
wholly of animal and vegetable remains. This yields sustenance to
the vegetable productions; and thereby becomes the actual, though
not the immediate, support of the whole animal creation.—Beneath
this is often found a thick bed of clay, that furnishes to man a
substance of which to make bricks, tiles, various kinds of pottery,
and innumerable other articles for the comfort of social life.—Next
are deposited vast beds of gravel, that are of use in numerous points
of view.—Underneath this are the infinitely varying strata of
sandstone, limestone, &c. which not only serve for the construction
of buildings, and for other important purposes, but also frequently
surround mines which contain the valuable metals.—Beneath a slaty
stratum are usually discovered those immense beds of coal so
requisite for the comfort, and, in some situations, even for the
existence of man.
These strata, it is true, are not always found together, nor are they
always discovered in the same order; but the statement will suffice
to show the general nature of their arrangement.
3. Minerals are sometimes observed in detached masses of various
size, and situated at various depths in the earth (Pl. I, Fig. 1).
4. They are also found in a kind of natural clefts which cross the
regular mineral beds or strata in different directions (Pl. I, Fig. 1, a,
Pl. I, Fig. 4, b). When these contain metallic ores, they are styled
veins; but when they contain only stony or earthy matters, the
miners call them dykes. They vary much both in magnitude and
length. Six thousand feet are considered an unusual length for veins,
though, in some instances, veins have been traced upwards of four
miles. Few veins extend more than 1200 feet below the surface of
the mountains in which they are situated. They are usually much
inclined; but they sometimes descend in a direction parallel with the
beds of rock in which they occur.
5. At the places where dykes or veins pass through the earth, they
occasionally disjoint the strata in a very singular manner (Pl. I, Fig.
4). Some of the coal strata, for instance, are thrown down or raised
on one side of a dyke upwards of a hundred yards; and the miner,
after penetrating through this dyke, instead of finding the same coal
again, meets, on the opposite side, with beds of stone or clay. Hence
he is frequently at a loss how to proceed in searching for the coal of
which he is in pursuit; and hence it is that to such dykes the peculiar
name of faults has sometimes been given.
6. In England the metallic ores are generally found in veins, that
form a considerable angle with the regular strata. This in Cornwall is
uniformly the case. And it is remarkable, concerning the veins of tin
and copper of that county, that they run in a direction nearly east
and west; whilst the dykes, or veins of other substances, run for the
most part north and south.
7. The thickness of veins, and the quantity and quality of the ores
they contain, differ in every mine. Some are only a few inches wide,
whilst others extend to the width of several feet. The vein at
Dalcooth mine, in Cornwall, varies from two or three to forty feet
and upwards; and, in some parts, it contracts so as to be little more
than six inches across.
8. In Cornwall the first traces of tin and copper are usually found
at the surface of the ground, and thence to the depth of 80 or 100
feet beneath; and it is said that no miner has ever yet seen the
bottom of a vein, although several have been wrought to the depth
of more than 1000 feet. The veins of these metals have, in some
instances, been worked to the length of three or four miles.
9. It is frequently observed that metallic veins are separated, from
the substances they intersect, by a thin wall, or lining, of minerals
different from these substances, and also by a layer of clay on each
side of the vein. It is also remarked that the same substance which
forms the outer coat of the vein is often intermixed with the ore, or
forms layers alternately with it. This has usually the denomination of
matrix or gangue.
10. There are few mines of any considerable depth that would not
be flooded with water from internal springs were not means adopted
for drawing off this fluid. The steam engines that are employed for
this purpose in some of the Cornish mines are so powerful as to
discharge incessantly, both by night and day, a quantity of water,
equal to at least 1000 gallons, or near twenty hogsheads, every
minute.

SYSTEMATIC ARRANGEMENT OF MINERALS.

 11. To a superficial observer, perhaps nothing would appear more
easy than to describe a mineral. This, however, is by no means the
case. The same general appearance sometimes prevails in
substances that are very different from each other; and the same
stone, in its different states, is often extremely varied in its
appearance. To these difficulties it must be added, that the
combinations of mineral substances are multiplied to a great extent.
A little application, however, particularly if the student be possessed
of a collection of arranged and named specimens, which he will have
no difficulty in procuring at a reasonable price, will enable him to
overcome all the obstacles that otherwise might impede his progress
in beginning to acquire a knowledge of this interesting science.[1]
12. The most simple and natural division of minerals is into four
classes, of, 1. Stones; 2. Salts; 3. Combustibles; and, 4. Metals; and
the following table, which has chiefly been arranged from the system
of Werner, the well-known German mineralogist, will exhibit a
tolerably correct outline of the classification of these substances. To
reduce the whole within the compass of a single page, many of the
families, however, have necessarily been omitted.
1. Such collections are supplied by Mr. Mawe, No. 149, Strand, London. His
terms, for collections containing from 100 to 200 specimens, are 5 guineas;
from 200 to 300 specimens, 10 guineas; and from 300 to 400 specimens, 15
guineas. For collections containing from 350 to 400 specimens, more select,
and comprising a better suite of precious stones, he charges from 20 to 30
guineas; and for larger collections, from 50 to 100 guineas. At the particular
request of the author, Mr. Mawe has arranged a few collections of minerals,
and numbered them in such manner as to correspond with, and illustrate the
present volume.
 13.To complete a general view of the different productions of the
mineral kingdom, it is requisite to subjoin a tabular arrangement of
the various kinds of rocks.
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